The present invention relates to a catheter employed for diagnostic and/or therapeutic procedures in medicine, more specifically in minimally invasive cardiac electrophysiology studies and/or cardiac ablation procedures.
Catheters of the above-described type are known in the art and, in particular, catheters capable of bi-directional curvature or lateral deflection upon movement of a remote manual actuator. A catheter of the aforesaid type employing tension/compression members without the need for a compression strut is known; and, in particular such a catheter is shown and described in commonly owned application Ser. No. 09/232,866 which is a continuation-in-part application of the disclosure of U.S. Pat. No. 5,861,024 commonly owned by the assignee of the present invention, the details of each being expressly incorporated herein by reference. The catheter described in the aforesaid '024 patent is of the type that is bi-directionally curveable in a generally planar curvature for entering the passages of the heart. In certain procedures the catheter is inserted through the femoral vein to a first chamber of the heart and it is then desired for the end of the catheter employing the electrodes to enter into another passage of the heart communicating with the first chamber of the insertion.
In addition, it has been desired to have the catheter conform to the inner periphery of certain passages in the heart and in particular the pulmonary vein for mapping or taking of electrical measurements of the condition of the inner periphery of the aforesaid passage or, in certain cases, performing ablation procedures on the passage of the heart.
Heretofore, it has been possible to deflect the catheter laterally with respect to the direction of elongation of the catheter casing; however, it has not been possible to provide such a catheter which could conform to the transverse peripheral configuration of the interior of the heart passage for which it is desired to conduct these studies and/or ablation procedures. Thus, it has been desired to find a way to map the inner periphery of the passage of the heart in a circumferential or transverse direction with a remotely inserted and remotely actuated deflectable tip catheter, and particularly one in which the radius of curvature can be minimized to provide access to other passages or passage portions that have been heretofore inaccessible.